IL-76 aircraft: A Chinese piloted aircraft reported spotting debris that may be from the missing Malaysia Airlines aircraft. But a US P-8 Poseidon flying over the coordinates given by the IL-76 failed to spot any debris.

ByMegha Rajagopalan and Lincoln Feast, ReutersMarch 24, 2014

Beijing and Sydney — A Chinese search plane discovered "suspicious objects" in the southern Indian Ocean on Monday, the official Xinhua news agency reported, raising the possibility that they could be from a Malaysia Airlines plane missing for over two weeks.

The crew of the IL-76 plane spotted two "relatively big" floating objects and several smaller white ones dispersed over several kilometers, Xinhua reported.

The Ilyushin or IL-76 is a large Russian-made, four-engine multipurpose aircraft,

The reports came as Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak said on Monday that the Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, which disappeared over two weeks ago en route to Beijing, crashed thousands of miles away in the southern Indian Ocean, citing new satellite data.

All 239 people on board were presumed dead, airline officials said.

Analysis of satellite information from British company Inmarsat had shown that the Boeing 777's last position was in the Indian Ocean west of Perth, Australia, Najib said in a statement.

"This is a remote location, far from any possible landing sites," he said. "It is therefore, with deep sadness and regret, that I must inform you that, according to this new data, Flight MH370 ended in the southern Indian Ocean."

He added that the families of the passengers and crew had been informed.

"For them, the past few weeks have been heart-breaking; I know this news must be harder still," he said.